SANDER GOMMANS Comments On Departure From MAYAN Project In New Interview, Audio Clip Of Track Penned For SCHEEPERS Solo Album Available

April 19, 2011, 7 years ago

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Ex-AFTER FOREVER / HDK guitarist Sander Gommans is featured in a new interview discussing his recent work with Ralf Scheepers (PRIMAL FEAR) and Amanda Someville (AVANTASIA / HDK). In the excerpt below, Gommans comments on his reasons for leaving the project - now known as MAYAN - he'd been working on with former After Forever bandmate / EPICA guitarist Mark Jansen.

The project, announced in 2009 as a collaboration between the two guitarists, evolved to become the recently launched Mayan, something Gommans prefers to be distanced from.

“I decided to quit because it became more and more obvious that they wanted to make Mayan a live band,” he says, “and it was going to take a lot more time than I initially expected because I saw it as a being a project when I started. Also, Mark wanted to work with Floor (Jansen / After Forever) and Simone (Simons / Epica), and I wanted to get out of that specific genre. I really thought we were going to create something new. I respect their opinion, but as an artist I decide to focus on other things.”

Mayan is perhaps best described as a more aggressive version of Epica – with HDK-like tendencies, oddly enough – making even the most devout fan question Mark Jansen’s choice of direction for the debut album, Quarterpast. It’s hard to understand why he wouldn’t simply use the material for the next Epica album which, in all honesty, is stronger than anything on the band’s last outing, Design Your Universe.

“I don’t understand it either,” says Gommans. “I think it’s going to be cool, but I think it’s too safe considering what they could be doing.”